Warm air leaving some out in the cold

December 05, 2001|By Delroy Alexander, Tribune staff reporter.

Unseasonably warm weather through most of the fall has made it easier for commuters, but it threatens to turn to slush the plans of retailers, snow removal specialists and other firms that rely on the cold weather to boost sales.

Temperate conditions have led to a roller coaster ride for many local players, including Matt Heitz, owner of Chicago Firewood Co., which supplies wood and charcoal to an estimated 6,000 people.

"We're totally dependent on the weather," said Heitz, who has supplied heating fuel to Chicagoans for 15 years.

"We're coming off the highest-volume October we ever had because of the cold weather," he said. "But it's been one of the worst-volume Novembers because of the warm weather."

Heitz has to plan at least six months in advance in order to have a stock of properly dried wood to sell as fuel. He was not expecting heavy demand this winter, following the drop in local gas prices from last year's highs.

But a brief cold snap in October boosted a typically slow month and threatened to begin depleting his stocks--a genuine concern after last year, when more snow in December than is typical caught local companies by surprise.

After running out of salt at the end of last year, one Chicago-based snow removal company rushed out to buy more. John Allan, who runs Superior Snow Removal, which operates 25 trucks, ended the winter with more than $40,000 in salt in his warehouse.

Preparations to avoid similar problems this winter have so far been in vain, he said.

Allan has changed the fluids in his vehicles and replaced buckets needed to plow the snow, but for the company to begin work on commercial snow clearing contracts for clients such as Walgreens and Jewel, he needs at least 1 1/2 inches of snow to settle on the ground.

"We are just waiting for it to get cold," Allan said. "Excavating firms love it right now because they can still dig."

Retailers are also waiting for a cold snap, which typically encourages sales of sweaters, coats and scarves. Most are already feeling the effects of the warm weather, on top of a year that has been decidedly difficult as the economy has slowed and shoppers have lost their jobs.

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS Warburg said Tuesday their retail chain store sales index fell 1.7 percent during the week ended Dec. 1--the largest drop since Sept. 11--following a 0.9 percent gain one week earlier.

A similar pattern was also picked up by the International Council of Shopping Centers, which said retail sales in the week ended Dec. 1 fell 2.6 percent overall, compared with a year earlier.

Apparel sales were among the hardest-hit areas, falling 4.6 percent, said Patrice Selleck, a spokeswoman for the council, a New York-based trade association that monitors weekly sales from more than 4,000 specialty stores in 80 malls across the country.

Coat retailer Hana K, which has two upscale area stores and a shop in New York, said it, too, has felt the pinch, but says cold weather can't be too far away.

"In our downtown [Chicago] store we are certainly lagging behind on sales," said owner Pierre Lang. But, surprisingly, sales are brisk at his store in Glencoe, where "it's like Sept. 11 never happened and everything is covered with snow."

Lang is buoyed by the fact that the North Shore set that frequents his Glencoe store is snapping up his custom-made coats. That's particularly heartening, given that 50 percent of his sales are made from October through January.

And even Selleck expects retail sales to take a turn for the better.

"We'll probably see what we always see," she said. "A rush of people going out and buying clothes, shovels, salt, snow blowers and things like that once it gets cold."